Gunmen killed 12 soldiers, Wednesday, in a pre-dawn raid on a military base in southeastern Niger’s Diffa region, a regular target of Boko Haram jihadists, the country’s defence ministry said.
Another eight soldiers were wounded in the attack on the Blabrine military unit, said the ministry statement read out on state radio, adding that this was a provisional toll.
The attack was “very probably” carried out by Boko Haram, the statement added.
This was the latest in a string of increasingly brazen attacks near the West African country’s border with Nigeria, where the radical Islamist insurgency has claimed hundreds of lives.
The attack was launched at around 3:00 am (0200 GMT), a municipal source told AFP earlier on condition of anonymity.
A senior official in Diffa added that military equipment had been torched in the attack.
Diffa, which borders the birthplace of Boko Haram in Northeastern Nigeria, has been hit by repeated cross-border attacks by the Nigerian jihadist group since 2015. (AFP)